It has long been my assertion that Betty White owes a lot to Lake Placid. When the horror film about a large crocodile terrorizing a small town was released in 1999, Betty White was far removed from her Golden Girls run and was bouncing around in various forgettable mid-season television pick-ups that went nowhere (anyone remember Maybe This Time? ). But then she took a role as the croc loving Delores Bickerman in the 1999's Lake Placid alongside Oliver Platt and Bridget Fonda and we were reminded just how fun, energetic and in-on-the-joke the aging actress could be.
That was 14 years ago, and more unimportantly, three sequels ago as the fourth installment, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter was thrown out to DVD waters in 2013. Brought to us by the always high-standard revering Syfy Channel, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter was a TV Movie starring Yancy Butler (reprising her role from Lake Placid 3), Elisabeth Röhm, Poppy Lee Friar and Nightmare on Elm Street's Robert Englund in the continuing struggles of the Lake Placid area in keeping the crocodile deaths to a minimum.
The plot for this latest endeavor is about as smart as a dung beetle. Picking up exactly -where the classic-should-have-been-nominated Lake Placid 3 left off, The Final Chapter has poacher Jim Bickerman (Englund) in rustler heaven when he arrives at the local lake that is seemingly populated by man-eating crocodiles.
Complicating the dung beetles plot are a female sheriff (Röhm) and her wide-eyed daughter (Friar) who both find themselves in harm's way as the large aquatic tetrapods munch their CGI way through a body count that would have Jason Voorhees nod in appreciation.
The Syfy Channel and their made-for-television films have a tendency to be McDonald's type meals. Quick and easy. And Lake Placid: The Final Chapter is both. It is barely 80 minutes long and it doesn't push any envelopes on its way to PG-13 glory.
The kills are unimaginative and created with such bad CGI that your head might turn away from the screen not for the brutality, but for the saving grace of not having to watch ridiculously fake CGI blood splash so foolishly around edited body parts.
It's hard to say that The Final Chapter is the worst Lake Placid of the series. But it is also hard to imagine that the idea has spawned three sequels. Lake Placid 4 is just as bad as Lake Placid 3 which was just barely worse that Lake Placid 2.
If you have children on the cusp of appreciating more graphic and engrossing horror fare, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter might be a worthy babysitter that is not likely to do much damage to your child's sleep time. But for adults, this was a waste of 80 minutes where you wish the bullets fired on screen towards the crocodile's would be used against the producers who might suggest 'A New Chapter'.
www.killerreviews.com
That was 14 years ago, and more unimportantly, three sequels ago as the fourth installment, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter was thrown out to DVD waters in 2013. Brought to us by the always high-standard revering Syfy Channel, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter was a TV Movie starring Yancy Butler (reprising her role from Lake Placid 3), Elisabeth Röhm, Poppy Lee Friar and Nightmare on Elm Street's Robert Englund in the continuing struggles of the Lake Placid area in keeping the crocodile deaths to a minimum.
The plot for this latest endeavor is about as smart as a dung beetle. Picking up exactly -where the classic-should-have-been-nominated Lake Placid 3 left off, The Final Chapter has poacher Jim Bickerman (Englund) in rustler heaven when he arrives at the local lake that is seemingly populated by man-eating crocodiles.
Complicating the dung beetles plot are a female sheriff (Röhm) and her wide-eyed daughter (Friar) who both find themselves in harm's way as the large aquatic tetrapods munch their CGI way through a body count that would have Jason Voorhees nod in appreciation.
The Syfy Channel and their made-for-television films have a tendency to be McDonald's type meals. Quick and easy. And Lake Placid: The Final Chapter is both. It is barely 80 minutes long and it doesn't push any envelopes on its way to PG-13 glory.
The kills are unimaginative and created with such bad CGI that your head might turn away from the screen not for the brutality, but for the saving grace of not having to watch ridiculously fake CGI blood splash so foolishly around edited body parts.
It's hard to say that The Final Chapter is the worst Lake Placid of the series. But it is also hard to imagine that the idea has spawned three sequels. Lake Placid 4 is just as bad as Lake Placid 3 which was just barely worse that Lake Placid 2.
If you have children on the cusp of appreciating more graphic and engrossing horror fare, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter might be a worthy babysitter that is not likely to do much damage to your child's sleep time. But for adults, this was a waste of 80 minutes where you wish the bullets fired on screen towards the crocodile's would be used against the producers who might suggest 'A New Chapter'.
www.killerreviews.com